Join the free Halloween CAL

Melanie Grobler of M and M Crochet Designs is hosting a free Halloween Crochet Along (CAL) on her blog and Facebook group. This was a lovely and fun CAL to be a part of, where we were creating two of Melanie's Melly Teddy Ragdolls: Gabby Ghost and Bobby Bat. If you would like to be part of it, too, head on over to her sites and check out the patterns. If you start now, there is still time for you to finish one or both of the ragdolls by Halloween!

My dolls differ from Melanie's written pattern in a few ways: My Gabby Ghost has no nose or mouth. (I like her face with just the eyes, eyelashes, and cheeks.) My Bobby Bat is mostly purple but with black wings and some other different color choices. On both dolls I opted not to stuff the hands or feet. (Again, just a personal preference for the ragdoll aesthetic.) And my dolls both have 12mm button eyes instead of safety eyes. If you want more details about my yarn choices, check out my Ravelry project page.

I made these using a 4mm crochet hook, but my hands would have been more comfortable if I had used a 4.5mm hook. I do own a hook that size, but the set it's part of has been missing since we moved two years ago, and I'm just stubborn enough not to buy another one because I know the set will turn up again once I'm able to fully unpack my craft room boxes. So, in the meantime, I'm making do with a different set of hooks that used to be my traveling set. Le sigh!!😉

Gabby's pumpkin is crocheted from the CAL pattern, but I made the pumpkin accompanying Bobby on my 22-needle Addi Pro circular knitting machine. I crocheted the stem and vines according to the CAL pattern, which worked out fine.

Join the free Halloween 2022 Crochet-A-Long at the following links:

Introduction

Shortcut to Part 1

Shortcut to Part 2

Shortcut to Part 3

Shortcut to Part 4

Shortcut to Part 5

Shortcut to Part 6

Orbit the Magical, Mystical Dragon CAL free pattern

I haven't attempted much amigurumi, but when I saw the free crochet-a-long for Orbit the Dragon  that started in June, I knew I had to try to make him.

I had to do some sleuthing to figure out the color name of the variegated yarn I’m using for the main body of my dragon because the skein was gifted to me without a label on it. I figured it was probably something by Red Heart, so I clicked around on the Red Heart site until I found a match. This one works well as the main body color for this pattern because the color changes are very short - about every 2 inches - which contributes to the mystical body “scales” appearance.

I kept up with the CAL until the end when it was time to assemble the pieces. That was the part that scared me so I procrastinated doing the assembly for months. But I wanted to give Orbit to my daughter for Christmas, so when Dec. 20th rolled around I knew I couldn’t put it off any longer. Aughhh! But I took my time and followed the instructions carefully and Orbit turned out just as cute as expected. Yay!

Week 1:

Week 2: 

Week 3:

Starting assembly:

Orbit assembled!

Color breakdown:

Head, body, nostrils: Red Heart in Monet Print
Eyes: Red Heart in Soft White and Black
Cheeks: Red Heart With Love in Bubble Gum
Horns: Red Heart in Soft White and Monet Print
Belly: Red Heart in Perfect Pink
Fins: Red Heart in Honeydew
Paws: Red Heart in Perfect Pik
Legs: Red Heart in Monet Print
Tail: Red Heart in Monet Print
Ears: Red Heart in Monet

Foxy crochet hat free pattern

It has been a busy past few weeks, but I finally had time to make the crocheted fox hat pattern from Lisa and Tanya's Foxy KAL.

The crochet fox hat pattern was originally written to be worked flat, but I deviated from the instructions and made it in the round (although it’s still square shaped!) seamlessly from the top down.

The free pattern isn't widely available just yet, but if you want to get your hooks into it sooner rather than later, you can request a copy by signing up for the Foxy CAL Ravelry group.

It ended up being a little big, but I still like how the project turned out. :-)

Joining the KAL

For the uninitiated, "KAL" stands for Knit-A-Long, which is a fun way of expressing the event where a designer shares a pattern with a group of knitters. Generally, the pattern and instructions are released in small portions at a time over a period of time, and the knitters work on each portion of the pattern as they receive it. The designer and the knitters usually correspond online, both for fun and to share questions and answers about how to work the pattern.

At the end of the process, everyone who sticks with the project has a new item to show off, and people from the group often share photos of their finished pieces. It is fascinating to see the creativity of the other group members in how their finished pieces can vary from person to person -- even when everyone was following the same pattern!

In similar fashion, "CAL" stands for Crochet-A-Long.

I have never tried participating in either a KAL or CAL before, but I just heard of "A very FOXY KAL" being offered by Tanya and Lisa, who hail from Australia, and I just headed over to their Ravelry group to join in. It looks like it will be a lot of fun, and the free fox hat pattern they are sharing is SO CUTE -- AND it's available in BOTH a knitted and crocheted version! I hope you will check it out and join in, too!